I am! I’m responding to the people who are less excited about the change.
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Bit off-topic but to comment on that claim, Malwarebytes has supposedly heard from Tipalti that there’s no evidence of any breach.
The only “proof” that circulated was a Tor website with a threat (probably to influence stocks and profit when it’s confirmed as fake).
Enough to scare off a part of the Roblox community, but it’s something to take with a grain of salt.
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Absolutely fair response, and not off-topic because it’s clarifying info.
Still, both platforms have yet to give a proper resolution response. (Tipalti’s initial response wasn’t very concise IMHO. Just seemed like a lot of paper pushing.)- This just comes from my knowledge as an independent researcher who conducts data security research for fun.
Even if this is the case, the radio silence and timing of this announcement + the scope of the userbase that will use this is just poor- financially and realistically.
What can Roblox do? Improve/Fix something they don’t control over?
The damage has already been done and Roblox can’t really do much
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I’ve been carefully observing the frequent updates and notable advances implemented by the team on the platform, significantly simplifying the lives of developers. While I recognize this progress, I still see opportunity for more features to be added, and I believe we will have constructive discussions in this regard.
Regarding the implementation of the Creator Store based on prices in US dollars, I feel a mixture of excitement and uncertainty. While the opportunities for creators look promising, questions naturally arise in our minds.
- How will creators be able to set the ideal prices in USD for their creations?
My concern is about the impact this transition will have on users who may have a preference for buying or selling their creations using Robux. If the option to buy or sell in USD is added, to the detriment of Robux, there is a concern about how this change might be noticed by these users and whether it might generate discomfort or dissatisfaction.
The ecosystem we’ve been using for over a decade?
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I will admit, I like the changes that have been proposed here regarding USD pricing but I also don’t like them.
The changes mean that creators like me and you will get 100% of the money from a transaction, rather than 70% of some monopoly money. It’s great if you’re making a living off of the platform like some people are.
On the other hand, I am concerned for how USD prices will work. I have around 5000 Robux (£50) in my account and I see no need to funnel more money into Roblox at the moment. Will there be some sort of USD to Robux conversion?
Also, I’d like to see how seller accounts work. Will you be required to have used DevEx in the past? If so, I’m guessing I’m selling for free 
Would also like to know whether Roblox will automatically convert prices from Robux to USD to minimize disruption or loss of revenue when the USD switch happens ngl
Just to be clear, this is coming from someone who campaigned for changes to the marketplace a while back:
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It’s hard to offer a different marketplace rate for creator assets in Robux currency, because we would need to attribute the income based on where it originated from on DevEx time instead of a fixed rate, and also there are some abuse vectors to overcome if we were to implement this that way.
The end goal here is to put more money in creators’ hand by offering a much higher rate than the standard experience-based creator payouts, because the cost to serve creator store assets is much lower than cost to serve for experiences.
I definitely recommend to keep the (constructive) feedback coming, we appreciate it!
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If Roblox continues to encourage and enforce USD payment instead of Robux, everybody should just quit and head over to other platforms and engines (Core, Godot, Unity, Unreal Engine, etc). For developers, the selling point of Roblox is easy accessibility and CHEAP/free for young and poor developers. The economy was closed with Robux, making it much easier for small developers to thrive. Now, with the introduction of USD SUBSCRIPTIONS and soon USD TOOLBOX ITEMS, this screws with the economy. Any developer who wanted quality toolbox assets, now cannot have any because anyone who has the time and willingness to make such assets of quality is going to make it paid for with money instead of nothing or Robux. This collapses Roblox’s ideology of easy development, now making the development experience on Roblox no different than on any other engine, except the ROBLOX ENGINE IS TERRIBLE and is LONG outdated. Switching to much more advanced engines, such as UE5 might even be EASIER than working with Roblox because of the tools and optimization provided by Epic. This update will discourage and disadvantage any less fortunate or small developer, and that alone is enough to drive away the vast majority of any new developer to the platform. The point of being on Roblox is such a bad idea given the modern capabilities of other engines, with nearly the same experience when it comes to assets, pricing, and expenses.
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Expanding my reply, considering the fact that Roblox is trying to attract a more serious group of people into the platform, does Roblox have any plans to combat plugin piracy?
In the post I linked above, past videos I’ve made and past DevForum topics, I’ve mentioned plugin piracy quite a bit.
It is currently effortless to pirate a plugin and some plugins were even marketed in a way to import plugins easily (which can then be saved easily, sorry Cam). We have seen plugins distributed on hacking forums which has probably harmed some of my fellow creators revenue.
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Roblox’s main appeal (to me) was this currency. It makes the ecosystem safer and everything easier.
Devs having USD or Robux doesn’t change much, because
- Roblox will still take a fee
- Roblox will still hold our assets until we explicitly ask for them (DevEx)
- Roblox still has full control over our revenue sources
The only thing it’s removing is that we have a specific platform-wide currency and not one currency accessible for all. How will it work for group payouts, for instance? What about the economy of devs that runs on Robux and don’t necessarily want/can have PayPal?
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This is a very exciting update! The malicious copies of plugins was a huge problem, so seeing that 47 million of these types of assets were removed is great!
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In the digital realm, there is no protection against piracy. And on the Roblox marketplace? Hell, there won’t be.
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They could at least make it harder, firing up Plugin Importer and saving the plugin as an RBXMX seems a bit easy
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How will USD profit from the Creator Store be recorded? As Roblox Credit? Will this USD profit only be taxed once by Roblox, or not at all?
Will users have the ability to convert Robux into USD, like the current implementation in the Ad Manager?
Also, can Roblox Credit be used to purchase assets in the Creator Store once USD is adopted?
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Is it ONLY available in USD? If it’s available in USD, that’s basically blocking the Creator Store for the rest of the world.
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I understand where this is coming from, and I’m super excited that Roblox is giving asset developers an opportunity to keep all the money they generate. I want to be clear that I’m not discounting the win it is that USD sales with no fees are coming.
On accepting robux: Instead of doing anything to try to make changes to how Robux works (I know there are many entry points with varying prices so offering 0% fees is not viable), what if Roblox let devs choose whether or not they would like to allow the asset to be purchased with Robux, and if so choose their own price that makes the most sense for their item. Then Roblox could take a 0% cut on the robux price but still enforce the typical DevEx rate for converting to Robux.
This just feels like a super abrupt change, and I think there are some easy adjustments Roblox could make in order to make this change more positive for everyone.
Hope this feedback can be at least discussed internally, again, I’m really excited about this update, but just would like to push to allow creators to have more selling options for whatever fits their needs best.
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there is a 99.99% chance you are correct, i know, because i DREAMT it.
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I have mixed feeling about this part of the announcement. On one hand, its understandable why providing the ability to pay with real fiat currency is a good option. It allows for more professional creative works to be published without them having to deal with some weird arbitrary (legally) worthless virtual currency.
On the other hand, non-professional and non-large game developers will almost certainty find it extremely difficult to be able to purchase anything on the Creator Marketplace. To explain further let me put up a hypothetical (turning on Ben Shapiro mode.)
Hypothetically speaking, imagine a developer who has successfully launched an experience on the platform, gaining some popularity. For the sake of argument, lets assume that although the developer earned a substantial amount of Robux, it falls short of reaching the DevEx minimum. Now, let’s consider that this hypothetical developer wishes to visit the Creator Marketplace to acquire something like a plugin.
Unfortunately, due to this restriction, the Robux they rightfully earned from their experience cannot be utilized to make purchases within the creator marketplace.
This example above may just be a hypothetical, but its almost certainty the position that many developers on the platform would find themselves in. Successful enough to be getting people to purchase content in the experiences but not successful enough to be easily reaching the DevEx minimum requirements.
Blocking the ability for anything apart from fiat currency to be used on a platform that is iconic for its virtual currency-one that it pays its developers in-is absurd and only helps to punish small developers on the platform.
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Forcing everybody onto a real-world currency and eliminating Robux helps to prevent the current race to the bottom with asset prices. People are far too comfortable paying literal pennies to somebody who invested hours of their time creating something on the marketplace.
Pricing assets in Robux massively skews their perceived value. Charing 100,000 Robux for an asset on the marketplace seems absolutely ridiculous, but in reality, it is only $350 (a perfectly reasonable price for an asset of the highest quality and utility). By using real currency, there is no longer any obfuscation over what creators really earn from their assets. This is a good thing.
I hope that Roblox introduces a fair price floor with this update so that the community cannot force creators to accept pennies for their assets again. It should be possible to earn good pocket change from creating assets, at least. Top asset creators should be able to make a living, just like any other large game dev marketplace.
That said, I understand the other perspective. This change will undoubtedly make it harder for certain groups of creators to access the best assets on the platform. However, I feel it is worth it to create a fair ecosystem and promote higher-quality assets in the marketplace. The previous setup was not good enough for those creating assets.
The most talented creators on Roblox are predominantly adults. They have bills to pay. The previous system hindered them from investing time into creating assets because they needed to work to live. Pricing assets fairly makes it more realistic for top Roblox creators to create better assets because they can justify investing more time. This benefits the whole platform.
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